


Winterthaw

by Winterboots (Lionfeet)



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, This is gonna be Iceburns pretty quick here, and it's gonna get a mature rating pretty damn fast, and there's gonna be some exploration of their relationship, like pegging, like some nonconventional sex, this is gonna be long probably
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-07
Updated: 2014-02-19
Packaged: 2018-01-11 12:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1172827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionfeet/pseuds/Winterboots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Haha I'm pretty sure someone else is doing something like this too but oh well I am incapable of writing smut without fifty thousand words of plot and feelings to pad it so that is my excuse.</p><p>This can be considered an alternate ending + continuation of Frozen.</p><p>Hans isn't evil, he's not Anna's true love and wasn't trying to get the throne through underhanded means. What he is is an unlucky prince who watches another man make the girl he was going to marry very happy. And he is someone who catches the eye of the shy and intimidating snow queen once Arendelle is thawed and things have returned to normal.</p><p>Currently rated Teen, this sucker is eventually going to be Explicit. Read the tags for an idea why.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Love, not all that true

Anna was almost in hysterics, grabbing at his shoulders, her mittened hands tugging at his face. She repeated again and again “I have to kiss you!” and while Hans wanted to give into her immediately, he had to know why. He sent the others out, tried to calm his fiancée down and understand what was going on. True love, she said. An act of true love would save her life and without it her heart would freeze. She needed him to kiss her to thaw the ice clutching at her heart or she would die.

In a panicked lunge lacking grace or decorum, he mashed his lips against hers, feeling the burn of cold against his mouth. When he pulled away, she was still shivering from the chill and her bottom lip had split from the pressure to her cracked, cool skin. She looked disbelieving for a moment, then lifted a hand and let it fall against his cheek with a soft smack. “You aren’t my true love.” Her voice was tired and mildly accusatory, and Hans felt his heart crack in a brittle way at the resignation in her voice. He felt even worse when he realized she was right he, her last hope, had failed in saving her life.

His hands found her shoulders, and he gripped lightly. “There has to be something, someone, that can help you!” He tried to keep his voice even and winced at the note of panic skewing his words from their intended calm. She had the nerve to look amused at the crack in his voice, but her expression fell as her body shuddered, trying to fend off the drop in temperature. “Kristoff…” His eyebrows raised and he gave her a light shake to get her attention. “Kristoff?”

She lifted a hand to grip his wrist and he looked alarmed at how stiff and weak her hold was. “Kristoff. He’s an ice harvester that helped me get to Elsa’s castle in the mountains. He brought me back to Arendelle on his reindeer after she accidentally struck me with her magic. He might be able to help me! Find him and then find Elsa. She’s all alone out in this storm; you have to make sure that she’s okay!” Her voice had taken on a hysterical note by the end of it and he couldn’t help the panic returning to crush his chest. He nodded, had been nodding at her every directive. “Okay, okay Anna. I’ll find Kristoff and I’ll find Elsa too. I’ll tell the guards to help. Will all of us looking, we should find them both quickly. You don’t have to worry, stay here and stay warm.” He shrugged out of his heavy coat, laying it across her shoulders and hoping whatever body heat had seeped into it would help slow down her chill. And then he ran.

His boots clunked loudly on the marble floors as he sprinted down the halls. The sound was eerie in the silent castle, unnerving him slightly even as he pounded down the staircase to the ground floor. His voice echoed off the walls as he shouted to gather the guards to him. “Find Kristoff!” He told them. “Find an ice harvester named Kristoff, he probably has a reindeer with him! Princess Anna needs him brought to her, maybe he can help her! Look all over Arendelle and beyond it as well. He may have already passed the city gates. The rest of you go up and keep her warm; build a fire, find blankets, anything you can think of to get her temperature to raise!” His panic must have spooked the guards; they leapt into action and split into groups, running up the stairs or out the doors in stumbling packs.

Elsa had not been escaped for long, she couldn’t have gotten far. He could find her. She was the one who had done this to Anna, she must be able to reverse her freezing heart. Throwing open the doors, he ran out into the driving snow.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With ice clutching at Anna's heart and time running out, Hans sets out to find Elsa, hoping she can reverse the freeze.
> 
> Chapter 2 of this thing that is taking over my brain. God I haven't written fanfic in so long, it's so hard getting back into the swing of it!

The blizzard was blinding.

His riding boots, meant for summertime conditions, skidded on the ice. More than once he found himself fighting to stay upright between the roaring wind and the treacherous ground. He scrambled towards the docks, remembering the Queen’s previous flight across the harbor when her powers had first unleashed. With magic like Elsa’s, it would be the quickest way to get away from Arendelle and back into the mountains where she had isolated herself.

The temperature was already dangerously low, and he could feel it dropping. Or maybe the wind was blowing harder. Either way, the cold was shredding through his white jacket like claws, the wind making every breath like a hammer blow to his chest. He should have stopped and found another coat. He’d been an idiot, his desperation to save Anna making him throw himself out into the raging snow without a backwards thought. It was impossible to see straight, the lurching storm around him covering everything in howling white noise. His hands and lower legs were going numb, the pins and needles sensation that preceded unfeeling deadness spreading and slowing his movements even further.

It was when he was considering that he might just die out here, the stupid thirteenth prince of the Southern Isles, that he saw someone. Not just anyone either; it was the Queen. She was watching, lost and despairing, as the storm whirled around her and continued to bury Arendelle under its unrelenting force. He tried calling to her, but his first attempts only produced wheezing exhales of steam. On the third try, his voice rang out, cracking from the cold “Queen Elsa!”

She whirled, the icy cape of her gown flaring around her. Her posture was defensive, snowflakes and magic falling from her fingertips. He stumbled closer, and recognition turned her defense to wariness. “Prince Hans? If you’re going to try to lock me up again, I’m afraid I can’t let you. I need to leave Arendelle, so the storm will stop!” He lunged forward a few steps, closing part of the distance between them so that his voice would carry over the storm. “Queen Elsa, you can’t go! Anna’s heart is freezing. She said true love would thaw it and I can’t help her like she needed me to. She told me to find someone named Kristoff, I sent the guards to find him but there’s no guarantee they will. Your magic is killing her, you have to reverse it!”

As his last sentence fell heavy between them, the storm halted. His found his view of the Queen free of blowing snow and he could see the disbelief and pain on her face clearly. Her posture slumped, and she fell down to her knees with a quiet noise of despair. Hans stepped forward, unsure of what to do. He wanted to scream, to jerk her to her feet and bellow at her that she had to save her sister, but couldn’t bring himself to say anything as she curled in on herself and wailed. Her voice was choked with emotion as she cried out “I can’t save her! I don’t know how! I couldn’t save her when we were children! I couldn’t keep her safe then and now she’s going to die because I still can’t control my powers!” The pain and hatred in her voice made him recoil a step. Her powers had caused her so much suffering. He didn’t know much about her past, but suddenly the long-closed gates of Arendelle made a lot more sense.

Hans made himself step forward again, took every agonizing step until he was kneeling on the icy surface of the harbor next to her. “Queen Elsa, you have to do something. You have to try. Every minute is one less that Anna has to live and she doesn’t have many to spare.” Elsa jerked to look at him, tears frosted in her eyelashes. She swallowed hard, the sound painful and brittle as she fought to regain control of her heaving breaths. Her voice was soft and fragile when she spoke. “What if she’s already gone?” Hans winced at the words, they felt like a kick to the gut. “She can’t be. Not after all she’s survived. You have to-“

“Elsa!” It was Anna’s voice who called to the Queen now. The pounding of hooves on the ice following it as it rang through the frigid air. Hans scrambled to his feet, and back several steps, nearly having a close up encounter with the impressive antlers of the reindeer that skid to a stop exactly where he’d been kneeling  a moment before. Anna looked worse, her hair white and her skin tinged blue with the cold. She was bundled against the chest of a commoner that Hans could guess was Kristoff. Without waiting for assistance, she half slid, half fell, off of the reindeer’s back to land in a heap next to her bewildered sister. Hans looked to Kristoff, who looked as lost as he was, but with a determined edge that he wished he could feel as well.

Anna’s hands were on Elsa’s shoulders. “Elsa it wasn’t your fault! You were scared, you were always scared! You never came out because you never wanted this to happen. I was wrong when I told you that you didn’t know what love is, you’ve known all along and I was the stupid one. You would never hurt me, you’re a good person, a good sister. You’re capable of so much, you can’t keep being so afraid of yourself!” Anna’s teeth were chattering, her voice so quiet and breathy by the end of it. Her hair in icy braids, her skin so blue and chilled. When Elsa flung her arms around Anna’s shoulders, Hans thought she almost looked made of ice.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna's frozen. Hans considers what is going to happen to Arendelle and its Queen. Sven is the only one of them that manages to have an attention span.
> 
> Also you guys I am so sorry this took so long. Lost one of my cats and I've been in a real funk about it ugh. This chapter is short but now I can finally get the ball rolling on the Iceburns, which is why you all are here anyway so yeah enough set up.

For a moment, Anna didn’t just look made of ice, she _was._

Elsa’s wailing sobs echoed across the bay. Hans was speechless, looking at the two sisters kneeling on the surface of the harbor. Anna was frozen solid; she could have been an ice sculpture. The Queen’s tears were icing on her cheeks, and Hans didn’t know whether to pull her away or let her be. He stood back a few feet and watched, unsure and lost.

Hans looked up as when he heard Kristoff’s boots crunch onto the ice of the harbor. The ice cutter had leapt down from his reindeer. The crushed despair on his face made the Prince’s heart clench uncomfortably.  The big buck lowed mournfully, his antlers scraping dully against the ice when he hung his head. It wasn’t fair. Hans had fought the storm to find Elsa, intending to lead her back to Anna. Who had apparently been a step ahead of him, getting Kristoff to race her out to meet them. It still wasn’t enough to save her. He should have been angry, at himself, at Elsa, at fate for being cruel, but all he felt was a hollow ache in his chest and the cold still biting his skin.

What was going to happen to Arendelle now? The Duke would surely demand the Queen’s execution for causing the death of the Princess. She hadn’t meant to, Hans knew that. Elsa wasn’t a monster, she was scared and alone and dealing with powers she didn’t understand. But his words wouldn’t mean much in the face of Anna’s death. Hans was just the youngest Prince from a far-off land, his words wouldn’t hold any weight against a case where the evidence was stacked up against the Queen like this. And he didn’t know if he could stay any longer, knowing Elsa would likely be put to the sword. Even if she ran again, she would be hunted. Her powers could only protect her so far. Hans knew that if that crossbow bolt had found her back at the ice palace, she would not have survived it.

Because of the ever blacker thoughts drowning out his attention, Kristoff saw it first. Or maybe the reindeer did, judging by Kristoff’s surprised “ _oof_!” from the buck’s antlers thumping into his ribs. His boots scuffed the ice as he stepped forward, voice breathless with surprise. “Anna!? Elsa, look, she’s melting!” Hans looked up too, stepping past the reindeer in wonder. The colour was coming back into Anna’s skin and clothing. Her hair shone in chestnut braids, her freckles stood out across her nose. The rich colours of her dress and cloak bled through the ice and back into existence. Her heart had thawed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, hittin my stride.

Looking back, the whole thing had seemed very surreal.

One moment, they were mourning the loss of Arendelle’s Princess, frozen by her sister’s uncontrollable magic and the next, things had worked out in a frankly, near unbelievable way.

Anna’s selfless forgiveness of Elsa had thawed her heart. She’d unknowingly saved her own life by using her last moments to tell her sister that she was a good person despite everything that had happened. It was this realization that helped Elsa get a better handle on her abilities, and she had, almost giddily, thawed the kingdom. When the harbor had thawed, they’d been left standing on the deck of a merchant galleon that had been caught under the ice. Certainly better than falling into the chilly waters, though Hans’ dignity had suffered a bit when he lost his footing on the lurching, slick deck. Kristoff had given him a hand up, and Anna had taken a moment away from her sister to inform him that he still had ice caught in his eyelashes, which were ridiculously long for a guy by the way.

It was a bit of a hassle getting back to the docks, especially considering they’d had to share a boat with a reindeer who wasn’t prone to standing still. They all must have looked terrible when they came walking up the steps into the city, but the crowd pressed in with an endless stream of questions, assurances and offers of this and that. Elsa seemed nervous at the attention, but handled it admirably and apologized again and again for the summer snow storm. There were skeptics; Hans could hear the mutters underneath the din of the crowd. He reined himself back from speaking out, but he needn’t have bothered, Anna made sure they all knew what _she_ thought about their skepticism.

When they had finally reached the gates to the courtyard of the castle, Hans was finally able to get in a word to Elsa while Anna and Kristoff were talking to the guards and relaying what had happened. “Your grace, are you all right? You seem shaken.” She paused, mid step, to look back at him in evident surprise. “Of course I’m fine. The last few days have been… crazy. But, I think everything will be okay now. Anna’s okay, we all are, for the most part. Though um, you look a bit dead on your feet.” He winced. “Do I really look that bad?” The Queen, doing her best to appear regal and detached and not like she wanted to have a good laugh at his appearance, lifted a hand to brush his hopelessly tangled hair back from his eyes. “The storm did a number on you, Prince Hans. I think a hot bath and a good night’s sleep would certainly do you some good.”

She withdrew her hand, clasping both of them in front of her chest and falling into step with him as they walked up and into the main hall of the castle. “I do owe you thanks though. If you hadn’t found me in the storm, I would have likely run away again. And you did the right thing coming to find me even when Anna turned out not to be your true love. A lot of people would have let her die. I can’t begin to tell you the service you’ve done Arendelle.”

Hans did his best to mirror the Queen’s stoic manner. It was more difficult than he had hoped, and he found himself stammering on his first syllable. “I-I did what any decent person would do, Your Majesty. I may not have been able to save Anna myself, but I wasn’t going to sit back and let her die. I’m not sure if my finding you is as heroic as you are making it out to be, in the end Anna saved herself. And Kristoff helped by bringing her to you. I’d give them the credit, not me.” Elsa smiled, pausing and holding a hand up for Hans to follow suit.

“Regardless, Prince Hans, you did Arendelle a service and I fully intend to reward you for it.” Hans blinked in surprise and was about to reply when he caught sight of a dark maroon coat swishing around a corner of one of the hall's many exits. “Very well, Queen Elsa. But first, I believe a certain Duke and his two goons need to be removed from Arendelle. If it please you, of course. He was ready to have you executed and his men certainly tried their level best back at your ice palace, likely on his orders. He also attempted to interfere with my sheltering of your citizens when Anna left me in charge. I doubt the little weasel has any good intentions for your kingdom.”

Elsa’s expression hardened for a moment, before she reined it back into peaceful indifference. “I think you have a point there, Prince Hans.” She turned away from him in a swirl of her gown, every inch a queen as she called the guards to her. “Find the Duke of Weselton and bring him for an audience with me. Make sure you find his two men as well. Locate his crew and make a point of my wanting his ship ready to sail as soon as possible. If he can’t be gone tonight, I want men ready to be posted at his door to make sure he doesn’t try to sneak away unseen. I want him gone, but I want him gone under my watch.”

The guards bowed in unison and the captain barked out a “Yes, my Queen, at once!” and Elsa turned back to Hans, grimaced slightly and called to one of the serving staff. “Put the Prince up in one of our finest guest rooms and run him a hot bath. Find him some dry clothes as well and have his horse brought to the royal stables. Alert the crew of his ship that he is resting on the Queen’s orders and to postpone their departure, if they already have one planned.” She waved her hand to silence Hans, who had been about to argue. “Call up one of the castle physicians as well. By tomorrow morning, he’s going to be too sick to travel.”


End file.
